This invention relates to the field of isolation systems for use in selectively isolating electrical circuits from one another. More particularly, this invention relates to isolation systems having capacitor-coupled isolation barriers. This invention is useful in, for example, telephony, medical electronics and industrial process control applications.
Electrical isolation barriers can be identified in many industrial, medical and communication applications where it is necessary to electrically isolate one section of electronic circuitry from another electronic section. In this context isolation exists between two sections of electronic circuitry if a large magnitude voltage source, typically on the order of one thousand volts or more, connected between any two circuit nodes separated by the barrier causes less than a minimal amount of current flow, typically on the order of ten milliamperes or less, through the voltage source. An electrical isolation barrier must exist, for example, in communication circuitry which connects directly to the standard two-wire public switched telephone network and that is powered through a standard residential wall outlet. Specifically, in order to achieve regulatory compliance with Federal Communications Commission Part 68, which governs electrical connections to the telephone network in order to prevent network harm, an isolation barrier capable of withstanding 1000 volts rms at 60 Hz with no more than 10 milliamps current flow, must exist between circuitry directly connected to the two wire telephone network and circuitry directly connected to the residential wall outlet.
In many applications there exists an analog or continuous time varying signal on one side of the isolation barrier, and the information contained in that signal must be communicated across the isolation barrier. For example, common telephone network modulator/demodulator, or modem, circuitry powered by a residential wall outlet must typically transfer an analog signal with bandwidth of approximately 4 kilohertz across an isolation barrier for transmission over the two-wire, public switched telephone network. The isolation method and associated circuitry must provide this communication reliably and inexpensively. In this context, the transfer of information across the isolation barrier is considered reliable only if all of the following conditions apply: the isolating elements themselves do not significantly distort the signal information, the communication is substantially insensitive to or undisturbed by voltage signals and impedances that exist between the isolated circuitry sections and, finally, the communication is substantially insensitive to or undisturbed by noise sources in physical proximity to the isolating elements.
High voltage isolation barriers are commonly implemented by using magnetic fields, electric fields, or light. The corresponding signal communication elements are transformers, capacitors and opto-isolators. Transformers can provide high voltage isolation between primary and secondary windings, and also provide a high degree of rejection of lower voltage signals that exist across the barrier, since these signals appear as common mode in transformer isolated circuit applications. For these reasons, transformers have been commonly used to interface modem circuitry to the standard, two-wire telephone network. In modem circuitry, the signal transferred across the barrier is typically analog in nature, and signal communication across the barrier is supported in both directions by a single transformer. However, analog signal communication through a transformer is subject to low frequency bandwidth limitations, as well as distortion caused by core nonlinearities. Further disadvantages of transformers are their size, weight and cost.
The distortion performance of transformer coupling can be improved while reducing the size and weight concerns by using smaller pulse transformers to transfer a digitally encoded version of the analog information signal across the isolation barrier, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,666, xe2x80x9cMODEM WITH DIGITAL ISOLATIONxe2x80x9d (incorporated herein by reference). However, two separate pulse transformers are disclosed for bidirectional communication with this technique, resulting in a cost disadvantage. Another disadvantage of transformer coupling is that additional isolation elements, such as relays and opto-isolators, are typically required to transfer control signal information, such as phone line hookswitch control and ring detect, across the isolation barrier, further increasing the cost and size of transformer-based isolation solutions.
Because of their lower cost, high voltage capacitors have also been commonly used for signal transfer in isolation system circuitry. Typically, the baseband or low frequency analog signal to be communicated across the isolation barrier is modulated to a higher frequency, where the capacitive isolation elements are more conductive. The receiving circuitry on the other side of the barrier demodulates the signal to recover the lower bandwidth signal of interest. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,895, xe2x80x9cTELEPHONE ISOLATION DEVICExe2x80x9d (incorporated herein by reference) discloses a switching modulation scheme applied directly to the analog information signal for transmission across a capacitive isolation barrier. Similar switching circuitry on the receiving end of the barrier demodulates the signal to recover the analog information. The disadvantage of this technique is that the analog communication, although differential, is not robust. Mismatches in the differential components allow noise signals, which can capacitively couple into the isolation barrier, to easily corrupt both the amplitude and timing (or phase) of the analog modulated signal, resulting in unreliable communication across the barrier. Even with perfectly matched components, noise signals can couple preferentially into one side of the differential communication channel. This scheme also requires separate isolation components for control signals, such as hookswitch control and ring detect, which increase the cost and complexity of the solution.
The amplitude corruption concern can be eliminated by other modulation schemes, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,595, xe2x80x9cCAPACITANCE COUPLED ISOLATION AMPLIFIER AND METHOD,xe2x80x9d which discloses a pulse width modulation scheme; U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,486 xe2x80x9cISOLATION AMPLIFIER WITH PRECISE TIMING OF SIGNALS COUPLED ACROSS ISOLATION BARRIER,xe2x80x9d which discloses a voltage-to-frequency modulation scheme; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,339 xe2x80x9cISOLATION AMPLIFIER INCLUDING PRECISION VOLTAGE-TO-DUTY CYCLE CONVERTER AND LOW RIPPLE, HIGH BANDWIDTH CHARGE BALANCE DEMODULATOR,xe2x80x9d which discloses a voltage-to-duty cycle modulation scheme. (All of the above-referenced patents are incorporated herein by reference.) In these modulation schemes, the amplitude of the modulated signal carries no information and corruption of its value by noise does not interfere with accurate reception. Instead, the signal information to be communicated across the isolation barrier is encoded into voltage transitions that occur at precise moments in time. Because of this required timing precision, these modulation schemes remain analog in nature. Furthermore, since capacitively coupled noise can cause timing (or phase) errors of voltage transitions in addition to amplitude errors, these modulation schemes remain sensitive to noise interference at the isolation barrier.
Another method for communicating an analog information signal across an isolation barrier is described in the Silicon Systems, Inc. data sheet for product number SSI73D2950. (See related U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,500,894 for xe2x80x9cTELEPHONE LINE INTERFACE WITH AC AND DC TRANSCONDUCTANCE LOOPSxe2x80x9d and 5,602,912 for xe2x80x9cTELEPHONE HYBRID CIRCUITxe2x80x9d, both of which are incorporated herein by reference.) In this modem chipset, an analog signal with information to be communicated across an isolation barrier is converted to a digital format, with the amplitude of the digital signal restricted to standard digital logic levels. The digital signal is transmitted across the barrier by means of two, separate high voltage isolation capacitors. One capacitor is used to transfer the digital signal logic levels, while a separate capacitor is used to transmit a clock or timing synchronization signal across the barrier. The clock signal is used on the receiving side of the barrier as a timebase for analog signal recovery, and therefore requires a timing precision similar to that required by the analog modulation schemes. Consequently one disadvantage of this approach is that noise capacitively coupled at the isolation barrier can cause clock signal timing errors known as jitter, which corrupts the recovered analog signal and results in unreliable communication across the isolation barrier. Reliable signal communication is further compromised by the sensitivity of the single ended signal transfer to voltages that exist between the isolated circuit sections. Further disadvantages of the method described in this data sheet are the extra costs and board space associated with other required isolating elements, including a separate high voltage isolation capacitor for the clock signal, another separate isolation capacitor for bidirectional communication, and opto-isolators and relays for communicating control information across the isolation barrier.
Opto-isolators are also commonly used for transferring information across a high voltage isolation barrier. Signal information is typically quantized to two levels, corresponding to an xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d state for the light emitting diode (LED) inside the opto-isolator. U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,107 xe2x80x9cOPTICAL ISOLATION AMPLIFIER WITH SIGMA-DELTA MODULATIONxe2x80x9d (incorporated herein by reference) discloses a delta-sigma modulation scheme for two-level quantization of a baseband or low frequency signal, and subsequent communication across an isolation barrier through opto-isolators. Decoder and analog filtering circuits recover the baseband signal on the receiving side of the isolation barrier. As described, the modulation scheme encodes the signal information into on/off transitions of the LED at precise moments in time, thereby becoming susceptible to the same jitter (transition timing) sensitivity as the capacitive isolation amplifier modulation schemes.
Another example of signal transmission across an optical isolation barrier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,275 xe2x80x9cANALOG DATA ACQUISITION APPARATUS AND METHOD PROVIDED WITH ELECTRO-OPTICAL ISOLATIONxe2x80x9d (incorporated herein by reference). In this disclosure, an analog-to-digital converter, or ADC, is used to convert several, multiplexed analog channels into digital format for transmission to a digital system. Opto-isolators are used to isolate the ADC from electrical noise generated in the digital system. Serial data transmission across the isolation barrier is synchronized by a clock signal that is passed through a separate opto-isolator. The ADC timebase or clock, however, is either generated on the analog side of the barrier or triggered by a software event on the digital side of the barrier. In either case, no mechanism is provided for jitter insensitive communication of the ADC clock, which is required for reliable signal reconstruction, across the isolation barrier. Some further disadvantages of optical isolation are that opto-isolators are typically more expensive than high voltage isolation capacitors, and they are unidirectional in nature, thereby requiring a plurality of opto-isolators to implement bidirectional communication.
Thus, there exists an unmet need for a reliable, accurate and inexpensive apparatus for effecting bidirectional communication of both analog signal information and control information across a high voltage isolation barrier, while avoiding the shortcomings of the prior art.
The above-referenced deficiencies in the prior art are addressed by the present invention, which provides a reliable, inexpensive, lightweight isolation system that is substantially immune to noise that affects the timing and/or amplitude of the signal that is transmitted across the isolating element, thus permitting an input signal to be accurately reproduced at the output of the isolation system.
Briefly described, the invention provides a means for transmitting and receiving a signal across a capacitive isolation barrier. The signal is digitized and quantized to standard logic levels for transmission through the barrier, and is therefore largely immune to amplitude noise interference. In one embodiment of the invention, the digital signal is synchronous and the signal is re-timed or latched on the receiving side of the isolation barrier using a clock signal that is recovered from the digital data sent across the barrier. The clock recovery circuit provides a means for filtering jitter on the received digital data so that the clock recovered has substantially less jitter than the received digital signal. Consequently, the digital communication across the capacitive isolation barrier is also largely immune to timing or phase noise interference.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the isolation barrier is comprised of two high voltage capacitors. One capacitor couples a digital voltage signal across the barrier while a second capacitor provides a return current path across the barrier. A DC supply voltage may be generated by an active diode bridge circuit on the receiving side of the isolation barrier that captures energy from the transmitted digital signal.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the isolation barrier comprises two capacitors of substantially equal value, and the digital signal communicated across the barrier is a differential signal. A DC supply voltage may be generated by an active diode bridge circuit on the receiving side of the isolation barrier that captures energy from the transmitted, differential, digital signal.
In some embodiments of the invention, the digital signal sent across the capacitive isolation barrier is a time-division-multiplexed combination of control or coding information and data generated by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) corresponding to the input analog signal. Control information may contain, for example, signaling information, error detection and correction codes, and framing information. A decoder on the receiving side of the barrier separates the control information from the digital data signal. The reconstruction of the analog signal on the receiving side of the capacitive isolation barrier is performed by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) using a clock signal that is recovered form the digital data sent across the barrier. In presently preferred embodiments, the ADC and DAC are single bit, delta-sigma type converters.
In some embodiments, the invention provides a means for bidirectional communication across a capacitive isolation barrier. In one embodiment the receiving circuit transmits digital information back to the transmitting circuit in time slots multiplexed with the time slots used to transmit digital information from the transmitting circuit to the receiving circuit. In another embodiment, the receiving circuit transmits digital information back to the transmitting circuit in the form of a current signal quantized to levels corresponding to a digital current value. In this mode, bidirectional communication is achieved by sending a digital voltage across the barrier and, in return, sensing a digital current. The isolation barrier may be comprised of two capacitors of substantially equal value and the bidirectional signal communicated across the barrier may be a differential signal. A DC supply voltage may be generated on the receiving side of the isolation barrier using energy captured from the transmitted signal.
The invention disclosed herein also provides a method and apparatus for enabling bidirectional communication across an isolation barrier separating a master circuit from an isolated circuit, wherein the master circuit includes an oscillator and a power supply, and wherein the power supply and clock signals in the isolated circuit are derived from the data signal received from the master circuit across the isolation barrier, which may be a capacitive isolation barrier. Communication from the master side to the isolated side of the barrier is as has been described above. The isolated circuit includes a clock recovery circuit to provide an isolated clock signal that is maintained in synchronization with the master circuit""s oscillator. The isolated clock signal and the isolated power supply circuit are then used to operate an ADC and driver circuit on the isolated side of the barrier in order to convert the analog signals from the isolated side to digital signals and to send the digital signals across the barrier to the corresponding circuitry on the master side of the barrier, where the analog signal is extracted. Communication in both directions (master-to-isolated and isolated-to-master) may be time multiplexed, such that there is adequate data flow from the master circuit to the isolated circuit to provide adequate energy and clock information to enable proper operation of the isolated circuit. In some embodiments of this invention, two capacitors of substantially equal value form the isolation barrier, and synchronous signals may be transmitted across the barrier in both directions using a differential format.
A detailed description of preferred embodiments of this invention is provided below, accompanied by the figures which aid in understanding this invention.